Marketing 101 : Find ways to make things fun without Breaking the Bank…

The example above comes curtosey of Grand Canyon University, located out in the Greater Phoenix area.

As I have stated a number of times before, Carroll County High School competes in an incredibly tough Region. Tough for two reasons, one the level of excellence on the playing field and the other being the amount of cash 💸 that is in the bank 🏦.

I don’t think we have the ability to out spend Abingdon, Christiansburg or the schools in the Greater Roanoke area. This means we need to find ways to out think them! How, might be the question that comes to mind ?

A few years back I switched over to using the tag line, ” The Hill “. Borrowing it from Appalachian State University, home to ” The Rock “. University of Florida has the Swamp and both Clemson and Louisiana State have Death Valley.

Virginia Tech has Enter Sandman and closer to home 🏡, Fort Chiswell High School 🏫 has ” Defend the Fort “. Each example above is something that doesn’t have a cost, can be used in marketing and bring a sense of pride to everyone involved.

University of New Mexico plays their home games in ” The Pit”. Then you can build on the term ” The Hill “, first example being – Not on Our Hill, a play on the phrase, Not in our House.

Another thing that is beautiful about a Tag Line is that it can be shared equally by everyone, which means it works for Track and Field in the same manner it would for the Basketball 🏀 team.

Charging The Hill, Protecting The Hill are other ideas 💡 that might work as well. Defending The Hill would be similar to our neighbors on US-52 North.

We need to search for ways to unite the School 🏫, in hopes of success across the board.

In the 2024-2025 School year we had the following Cavaliers place in their State Tournaments

Corrie Delp placed 4th in the Long Jump
Anthony Barnes and his Boys Basketball team finished up in a tie for 5th.
Trace Reavis placed 10th in the State Golf ⛳ tournament.
Brenden Fariss qualified for State in the High Jump.
We had an a pool full of 🏊‍♂️ swimmers advance to State and Wyatt Ogle placed in one of his events.
Samuel Collins gave West Long his first State qualifying Wrestler and a quartet of young Ladies advanced in a yet to be sanctioned Girls Wrestling.
Casey Burcham led the Baseball ⚾️ team to the first 20 win season in the history of the program.
Adam Nester led the Junior Varsity Baseball team to a 6th straight Three Rivers District crown 👑, while dropping just one game.
We had an Academics team advance to a National competition down in Hotlanta.
Let’s round out the rather impressive Top 10 List by stating that we even have a Cavalier on his way to Harvard University. Way to go, Ethan Edwards !

Carroll County High School 🏫 had a large number of SUCCESS stories last year on The Hill ! Celebrate them and use them as motivation for 2025-2026, while looking for a way to unite the efforts…

Five Good Minutes with Mr Greg Talley took place during Space Camp with Vickey Ritchie

Over the past five years, Greg Talley has been one of our favorite contributors and that is because of the understanding as to what we were trying hard to accomplish.

The goal for the site was to create a safe place for folks to visit on their computer 🖥 once a day to catch up with as many as possible pleasant moments that are taking place in and around The Hill.

We were never trying to produce hard core journalism but a fun but informative take on the events. Greg coached our Boys 👦 Tennis 🎾 team with a tremendous amount of flair so it was a match made in heaven. Coach Talley gave his players nicknames and tried to make playing for him as fun as possible for the Student Athletes.

Greg was at Special Olympics Basketball with one of his children, Presley. In the spirit of trying hard to brighten others day, Presley has a fun nickname as well – “Money 💰”. Money scored two baskets 🧺 yesterday afternoon and was loving every minute of the 2 hour gathering because Vickey Ritchie prides herself on INCLUSION. My efforts are also about INCLUSION so Vickey and I are a natural pairing.

Another one of Greg’s children is Jabin Talley, the current record holder for Tennis wins at Carroll County High School. After graduating CCHS, Jabin headed over Southwest Virginia Community College where he played his Freshman year. Year 2 will be taking the courses on-line and then a decision will be made on the next stop ✋ along the education trail 👣.

Greg did go on to share a fun story about a recent trip to the golf ⛳ course that included Jabin and three of his friends. Three other former Cavaliers, including recent graduate 🎓, Cody Reece.

There was a moment where a golf club ended up in a tree 🌳. Having seen Reece throw a baseball ⚾️ across the Diamond 💎 at Bill Worrell Field, I can attest to the arm strength 💪of the young man 👨. As the story goes, the efforts to retrieve said club went on for at least 30 minutes.